By Betre Yacob.
Photo Credit: www.nation.co.ke
The funeral ceremony of the Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, whose death had been a secret for several weeks and was announced on 20 August 2012 by Ethiopian state television, has taken place today (September 2) in Addis Abeba, the capital city of Ethiopia.
The ceremony which lasted nine hours started at Meskele Squire and concluded at Holy Trinity Church. It was attended by more than ten thousand people including different African leaders, ambassadors, diplomats and international organization higher officials.
Melese Zenewi, who was the main Western ally in counter-terrorism efforts in the horn of Africa, was believed by many to be a dictator. During his rule, he is believed to have imposed “his wicked will” on Ethiopians. Many Ethiopian and different international human rights organizations accused him of dividing people for his political benefit and jailing and killing so many innocent just because they opposed his regime and his wrong conducts.
Recently he was repeatedly criticized in condemning journalists and opposition political parties’ leaders and members and other political activist “traitors” and “terrorists”.
Meles Zenawi, born in 1954, president of the transitional government in Ethiopia (1991-1995), and Prime Minister of Ethiopia (1995-2012), took a key part in the armed struggle against the regime of military ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam and led the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), one of several groups fighting to end Mengistu’s rule.
At the beginning, Meles was a Marxist-Leninist, but later he had become the ‘market economy and parliamentary democracy’ advocator.
